Posted by Donald Officer (Moderator) on April 15, 2008, 12:10 pm, in reply to "A couple of links on Gary Marcus and his book"
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Imagined Comparisons
Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind by Gary Marcus. Houghton Mifflin;
Boston, New York, 2008. (211 pages). Reviewed by Donald R. Officer.
Paradoxically with knowledge also comes an astonishing new awareness of inherent limitation. In a remarkable direct and penetrating distillation, Gary Markus has put his finger on the big problem with evolution. Our bodies, we have known since early Darwin, are jerry rigged bag of tricks adaptations. Resigned to their second rate design, we trudge along consoled by an inner purity. In Kluge, Markus draws the next (alas) obvious conclusion. Our minds are similarly a true handyman’s special, constantly engaged in a metaphorical game of pin the tail on the donkey, trying to make sense of our selves and our world. We hope not to look too ridiculous until the real professionals arrive.
Unfortunately the only real professionals on the workings of the mind are psychologists, brain experts and other scientists who so far are limited to read only capabilities and curbed anyway by the same basic shortcomings as the rest of us. Yet in our adaptation we also exhibit our greatest strength. Absolute knowledge is not only unachievable for creatures whose knowledge base has necessarily been dedicated to a survive and thrive agenda, but is truly unimaginable given the equipment natural selection has provided.
Gary Markus has chosen the right level of detail and appropriate length for his overview of the “design” of the human mind. Kluge is short and focused on simple stark relief of the evolutionary workarounds that constitute human intellect. As defined on the book’s dust jacket, kluge is engineering slang for a clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem. However, the tone of this book may be the needed tonic it has to offer. In taking his light-hearted, perfunctory view of the evident imperfectability of human intellectual capacity, the author reframes our long history of unrealistically exaggerated expectations.
Where do we go wrong? Markus discusses six key fault lines: memory, belief, choice, language, pleasure and mental health. Memory, for example, evolved to give quick feedback in emergency situations. Therefore recollection is typically context based rather than photographically accurate. Problems arise when contexts shift exponentially or demand levels of precision and efficiency of recovery beyond the range our genes can readily express. You can remember where you left your keys if it was where you customarily do or last night’s routine was close to normal.
Belief is likewise problematic because of its heuristic nature. We can be trained to reason abstractly, but we prefer to temper logic with remembrance of the familiar, the inclination to be positive – a necessary survival strategy in stressful situations – the strong tendency to support interdependent group goals and our bias towards accepting what perception tells us. Alas, disruption of the norm can render such tendencies counter-productive. Group solidarity for example can easily degenerate into prejudice that undermines the greater good and our own self-interest.
In a well known soliloquy Hamlet refers to human beings as being “noble in reason” and “infinite in faculty.” Gary Markus wants us to disabuse ourselves of such notions. Likewise he suggests the biblical conceit that we are created in the image of God might be leading us to indulge some over reaching ideas about where we stand in the cosmos. Instead he suggests a prudent 13 point reeducation program to restore ourselves to a more sensible equilibrium. This is his cautionary list:
1. Whenever possible, consider alternative hypotheses.
2. Reframe the question.
3. Always remember that correlation does not entail causation.
4. Never forget the size of your sample.
5. Anticipate your own impulsivity and pre-commit.
6. Don’t just set goals. Make contingency plans.
7. Whenever possible, don’t make important decisions when you are tired or have other things on your mind.
8. Always weigh benefits against costs.
9. Imagine that your decisions may be spot-checked.
10. Distance yourself.
11. Beware the vivid, the personal and the anecdotal.
12. Pick your spots (Don’t waste energy on decisions of limited importance.)
13. Try to be rational.
Much of Gary Markus advice closely resembles the common sense we have all heard since childhood. The dimension his book adds to the familiar, universal folk wisdom is a humbling rationale for a more scientific framework that might make us finally take the old saws more to heart. Of course being the impetuous kluge burdened creatures that we are, perhaps not.
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